The emergence of ubiquitous high-speed broadband connectivity, smartphones, and tablet devices with enormous computing power and longer battery life, along with increased employee adoption of touchscreen devices (iPhone/iPad/BlackBerry) in every sphere of life, are all trends that serve to “liberate IT from the desktop.”

I am currently midway through a major research cycle on the topic, talking with CRM vendors, systems integrators, and end users. My goal is to define mobile CRM best practices and spotlight the pitfalls that can get in way of capitalizing on the mobile technology revolution.

I recently talked with Model Metrics, Wipro’s CRM consulting practice leaders, and Tata Consultancy Services’ CRM practice leadership team. These consulting and development firms are all doing a lot of mobile CRM projects for their clients. We brainstormed about the critical considerations that that must be addressed when defining a mobile CRM strategy:

Who are the intended users and targeted business community for mobile app use?

I recently joined Appirio's mobile practice that's done a lot of work in this area as well, and have had the privilege and challenge of deploying 5,000+ iPads/iPhones/iTouches at a healthcare provider along with a range of custom-built mobile CRM apps. So I can tell you, there's definitely a need for this kind of research! Here are a few other questions you may also want to include:

Does the solution scale across all business units or will something need to be built/customized for each business units?

Does the mobile solution easily integrate into my current CRM solution?

Do I have the skills/resources internally to support a mobile CRM solution or do I need to plan for external resources?

We'd love to chat with you, as well, about the Mobile CRM app Seesmic is developing as I write. We have been talking with some of our "MVPs" and getting their feedback already, including from some Fortune 500 companies.
Let me know how I might get in touch !